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The purpose of this study is to develop a list of building sustainability criteria and prioritize them in order to identify the most important ones for the context of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This study also aims to assess buildings as heritage, ordinary modern or sustainable modern buildings with respect to defined sustainability criteria, using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). Comparing sustainability aspects in both heritage and modern buildings can clarify which ones use more sustainability principles and this can integrate the best principles in both heritage and modern buildings to produce new buildings with better performance. The methodological approach is survey-based, using the answers obtained through questionnaires. Based on a literature review, the main criteria and sub-criteria were defined. A comparison of the relative importance between the rating criteria was made within the framework of the AHP, based on expert opinion, that would allow unambiguous prioritization of the decision-making factors and lead to a consistent result. The study assumes that all participants in the survey are experts who have knowledge of sustainability and buildings and their answers were truthful and reliable. The opinions of stakeholders, owners and building occupants were not taken into consideration. This research contributes to the field of building industry and sustainability. It broadens the understanding of sustainability assessment criteria as well as the degree of importance and validity of each criterion applied to assess the level of sustainability of heritage and modern buildings in the UAE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Thermal comfort studies on traditional residential buildings of Kerala that is known for its use of natural and passive methods for a comfortable indoor environment, are under progress. Scientific analyses of the environmental parameters determining thermal comfort have already been reported. Similar studies on modern residential buildings are underway. In order to compare the results of the scientific analysis with the user responses from the residents of traditional as well as modern residential buildings, a questionnaire survey was conducted during various seasons such as winter, summer and monsoon. A questionnaire was prepared in detail to understand the effect of factors which affect thermal comfort such as temperature, humidity and air flow in the evaluation of thermal comfort. This paper is based on the compilation of responses from the conducted survey. A comparison of the study results with that of scientific analysis already reported is also incorporated at the end of this paper. This study further confirms that Kerala traditional residential buildings are very effective in providing comfortable indoor environment irrespective of various seasons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]